She knew she should not read too much into a Society gentleman’s sudden interest in taking tea with a commoner. A kiss meant nothing. The very fact of him returning for lemon cakes and not to beg for her hand proved what they both already knew. There could be no courtship.
And yet she’d been unable to sleep. Unable to concentrate. Unable to sit still on her stool even when Pepys poked her with hairpins to get her to pay attention.
It was hopeless. All Nora could think about was that kiss. He had transported her from an empty sitting room to a magical ballroom with an orchestra only the two of them could hear. And then, when he had lowered those full, warm lips and touched his mouth to hers…
“Are you drawing, or are you moon-calfing?” Lady Roundtree asked crossly.
“Er, drawing.” Nora snapped her gaze to the sketch in front of her. “I was… contemplating the best shading technique?”
Lady Roundtree sniffed. “You were contemplating your upcoming tea.”
Nora glanced over at her sharply, her heart pounding in alarm and embarrassment.
Lady Roundtree flapped her gloved fingers toward Nora’s sketchbook. “No matter how much you like mulberry jam, young lady, there will be none for you until you finish that portrait.”
Nora nearly swooned in relief.
The baroness had no idea that her insides muddled together like a paintbrush in water. She still saw Nora as a poor relation whose greatest victory was a full belly.
“Finishing touches now,” she promised.
Her fingers flew across the page, but her mind was elsewhere.
Not a day went by that she didn’t miss her brother and grandparents dearly, and wonder how they were getting on in her absence. Slowly, however, this opulent town house was starting to feel like a second home. Lady Roundtree and Captain Pugboat were family, too.
She penciled in the final details, and presented her artwork to Lady Roundtree with a flourish.
Today’s effort was the latest in what had become a twelve-portrait series of fanciful scenes starring the baroness and Captain Pugboat. In this one, the intrepid duo was taming an actual lion.
Nora could scarcely keep a straight face.
Upon viewing the masterwork, Lady Roundtree burst into delighted laughter. When she finally caught her breath, her eyes met Nora’s and they both collapsed into another fit of giggles.
The baroness held up the portrait. “Who do you think I can convince that this really happened?”
“Anyone with any sense,” Nora assured her. “Whenever Cap’n P. Boat has that many ribbons tied about his neck, he fools me into believing he’s a real lion, too.”
Lady Roundtree motioned for a footman to add the newest portrait to the beautiful gilded frames she had commissioned specifically for this series. In moments, this sketch would join the others on the walls of her private chamber.
“I am going to discover your artistic limits,” the baroness warned her.
Nora lifted her chin in challenge. “I can devise a new adventure every day for the rest of our lives, if you so desire.”
The baroness harrumphed. “Next time, I want us to be harpooning a whale.”
Nora snorted with laughter. “In the Thames? Or is this more of a Bath seaside holiday?”
“Pirate ship,” Lady Roundtree said firmly. “Without question.”
“Consider it done,” Nora promised.
As she and the baroness became mutual champions more and more, Nora’s fear of her double life being found out had multiplied.
She did her drawings here, under this roof, behind Lady Roundtree’s back. Their names were linked. Nora had not only inadvertently brought the baroness into the shadow of scandal, but the discovery would hurt Lady Roundtree’s feelings, and disappoint her deeply.
Right before she tossed Nora out on her ear.
For the tenth time that day, she wished she could give up the caricatures. But even if her family weren’t in desperate need of the money, Nora was in too deep. The damage had already been done. Stopping now would not make the resulting scandal any less devastating.
